monitoring recording stereo issue

[uj_morrow]

I need help with using Audacity 2.0.1 with my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card and Win-XP pc. I am connecting a turntable (RCA audio out) to the pc (line in on Santa Cruz). I am recording with Audacity and monitoring sound through headphones. I can manipulate the right and left meters and record the results. However while recording I hear a regular stereo mix thru the phones. I want to hear what I am recording while I record. I get the same results when I switch to speakers and with Nero software as well. Any help would be much appreciated.

[kozikowski]

That's a juggling act. Set Audacity Preferences so it's recording from the Turtle Beach Stereo Line-In and not Stereo Mix or anything else. This may take some trips between Windows and the soundcard software.

Set the playback preferences so the sound goes back out to the soundcard (where your headphones are).

Also in Audacity Preferences, set Recording for Playthrough and turn Overdubbing off.

That should kill all the sound pathways except the one where you're actually listening to the recording.

You can listen to the disk without going into Record by right-clicking on the red recording meters and select Start Monitoring. Otherwise it will be silent when Audacity is not recording.


I'm prompted to ask if you have a modern, USB turntable or an older analog one. The older analog ones are preferable and usually much better built, but the RCA connections do not contain regular audio. They are connected directly to the cartridge and have low level, intentionally distorted sound. What usually happens is those RCAs are connected to a Phono Preamplifier and that corrects all the phonograph problems and sends perfect sound on to wherever it's going.

You can force it to work without that, but then you have to try and correct all the distortions inside Audacity, so eliminating the phono preamp isn't "free."

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UFO202

This is the supervisory page. Scroll down.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... to_cd.html

Koz

[uj_morrow]

Thank you. I really appreciate the help. I did what you suggested. It worked. I have a turntable that can do usb or RCA line out. I use the line out, not the usb connection.

Joe